The Institute of General Semantics is proud to announce Thom Gencarelli, Ph.D., as the new editor of our quarterly journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics.

Dr. Gencarelli's first issue as an editor will be ETC 74:1-2, a double issue retrospective of the journal as it turns 75 years old.  The double issue will be shipping late October 2018.

Editor Biography

Thom Gencarelli received his Ph.D. from the Media Ecology program at New York University in 1993 where, as a student of Neil Postman, he was first introduced to Alfred Korzybski’s work and the principles of General Semantics.  Thom is currently Professor and the founding Chair of the Communication Department at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York.  He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of General Semantics since 2008 and is a Past President of the Media Ecology Association, the New York State Communication Association, and the New Jersey Communication Association (twice).  His research interests include general semantics, media ecology, new media developments and their consequence, media literacy/media education, and popular media and culture (with an emphasis on popular music).  He is, most recently, co-editor (with Brian Cogan) of the anthology Baby Boomers and Popular Culture: An Inquiry into America’s Most Powerful Generation (ABC-Clio/ Praeger, 2014), and he has been writing a book about language acquisition and cognitive development (which he hopes to finally finish once he steps down as department chair in 2019).  In 2013, he received the Christine L. Nystrom Award for Outstanding Career Achievement in Service to the Field of Media Ecology from the Media Ecology Association and, in 2016, received the John F. Wilson Fellowship Award for Scholarship and Service from the New York State Communication Association.  Thom is also a songwriter, musician, and producer, and has released two album-length works with his ensemble bluerace, World is Ready and Beautiful Sky.  The group’s third album, Mistral, will be out this year.

Learn More about ETC

ETC: A Review of General Semantics was founded in 1943 by the International Society for General Semantics. ISGS merged with the Institute of General Semantics in 2003. Since that time, the Institute has published the journal.

Subscription information for ETC: A Review of General Semantics »

Our long-awaited issue 73:4 (October 2016) of ETC: A Review of General Semantics is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 73:4 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

"'She's a Little Different': Autism-Spectrum Disorders in Primetime TV Dramas" by Phillip S. Poe and Maxwell C. Moseley

"Biases in Making Choices" by Joe DeVito

"The Transmission Model of Communication: Toward a Multidisciplinary Explication" by Zachary S. Sapienza, Aaron S. Veenstra, Kestas Kirtiklis, and Steve S. Giannino

"The Meaning of Graffiti: An Interpretation" by Daniel D. Gross and Timothy D. Gross

"How to Develop Your Thinking Ability Using General Semantics" by Martin H. Levinson

"The Spectacle of Analysis: Analytics as Organizational Propaganda" by Ross Jackson

"How 'Dead Verbs' Have Imprisoned the English Language" by Stan Kozikowski

"Seven Myths about Abraham Lincoln" by Martin H. Levinson

"A Lexicon for Social Media: A Proposal" by Daniel D. Gross

The Next Generation:
"On the Behavioral Assessment of Semantics" by Kyle Krantz
"Personal Time-Binding Plan" by Nolan McBride
"Differentiation Failures: Polarization" by Jacob Ray

Poems:
"Visiting the Park" by Danny P. Barbare
"Emily Wrote to Me" by Danny P. Barbare
"Dog Bark Middle Night" by Richard L. Epstein
"A Convocation of Categories" by Martin H. Levinson
"Roses are …" by Martin H. Levinson
"ANA, Log Out" by Lance Strate

Plus Letter from the Editor and Book Reviews.

Cover Art

The photograph used for the cover of ETC 73:4 is by Rick Wise -- the fourth image in a four-part series.  Wise labels his images “Photographic Fiction.” Currently he is working on two different series, Things, everyday objects we pass by without seeing, and Time-Flows, in which time is simultaneously expanded and contracted. He considers all of his work “Dancing with the Eye.”

The Institute of General Semantics is pleased to announce its latest book in the New Non-Aristotelian book series.

The book, Awareness and Action: A Travel Companion by Mary P. Lahman, asks the questions:

• Are you aware of how your words create worlds?
• Are you aware of how your language and listening habits impact interactions in the classroom, at work, and on the road?

Created as a practical guide for learning to communicate well in these contexts, Awareness and Action connects theory with practice.

In Part 1, explore how your senses, previous experiences, and pervading cultural norms filter your perceptions. Once you develop an awareness of the limited details humans use to draw conclusions, you learn to take action with language and listening behaviors that more accurately align with the natural world, not what you infer is happening.

In Part 2, practice the language behaviors that Alfred Korzybski developed to delay responding to automatic thinking processes. Using principles from his theory of general semantics, you will learn how to “go to the territory” — find details in the natural world — so that your words match the experiences they represent. Moreover, you will discover how to apply Korzybski’s formula for happiness: set minimum expectations and practice maximum motivation when interacting with others.

Awareness and Action gives you the tools. Now it’s your turn to “go to the territory” of your own life to find where you can improve your communication skills.

• Click here to purchase Awareness and Action: A Travel Companion from the IGS Store.

The Institute of General Semantics is pleased to announce that one of its most popular books -- People in Quandaries: The Semantics of Personal Adjustment, by Wendell Johnson -- is back in print!

The book is now available in a softcover version, as well as a PDF download from the IGS Store.

About the Book

People in Quandaries deals with the "mechanics" of disappointments, frustrations, and other sources of unhappiness.

It carefully examines how linguistic misevaluations produce our feelings of inadequacy and failure; how our verbal habits can result in false "pictures" of ourselves and our environment; how our unreliable linguistic maps keep us in quandaries.

The book then demonstrates how to recognize and change unrealistic ideals and aspirations; how to improve our ability to cope with the circumstances of an increasingly unpredictable world.

An ideal gift to introduce friends to general semantics!

• Click here to purchase People in Quandaries from the IGS Store.

The Institute of General Semantics recently did a soft relaunch of its online store, and now we are ready to more officially announce its release!

The new IGS Store features many of the same books, ebooks, periodicals, and audio recordings as the past store. You can also purchase IGS memberships and gift memberships as well as request articles from ETC: A Review of General Semantics and the General Semantics Bulletin.

If you had an account with the prior store, you will need to create a new account when ordering.

We will be fine-tuning the IGS Store over the Summer 2018. Should you have any issues with the store, or any feedback on the new store, please reach out the IGS Orders Dept. (aka Customer Service) by email here.

Visit the new IGS Store »

Our long-awaited issue 73:3 (July 2016) of ETC: A Review of General Semantics is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 73:3 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• "'Copying Animals in Our Nervous Processes' with Possible Implications for the Evolution of Psychiatric Disorders" by Mark H. Bernstein
• "The World as Process" by Richard L. Epstein
• "Oceanic Gyres, Grammatical Gyres: What We Do Not Know That Has Hurt Us" by Stan Kozikowski
• "Dating General Semantics" by Martin H. Levinson
• "In Defense of the Athenian Way: Neil Postman and Eric Hoffers' Arguments Regarding Aesthetic Creativity" by Barry D. Liss
• "General Semantics and Worker Supervision: A Case Study" by Martin H. Levinson
• "Peripheral Vision: Re-Imaginging Marginality" by Janelle Wilson
• Poems:
  "San Francisco November 16 2010" by Lance Strate
  "My System" by Lance Strate
  "A Turn of a Phrase" by Lance Strate
  "No Fairytale Ending, I'm Afraid" by Lance Strate
  "Flushing" by Lance Strate
  "The Art of Facts" by Lance Strate
  "Cross I'd Twisted Tongue" by Lance Strate
  "Grecian Formula" by Lance Strate
  "A Fickle Pickle" by Lance Strate
  "The Oranges of Consciousness in the Breakdance of the Bicameral Mind" by Lance Strate
• Plus Letter from the Editor and News & Notes.

Cover Art

The photograph used for the cover of ETC 73:3 is by Rick Wise -- the third image in a four-part series.  Wise labels his images “Photographic Fiction.” Currently he is working on two different series, Things, everyday objects we pass by without seeing, and Time-Flows, in which time is simultaneously expanded and contracted. He considers all of his work “Dancing with the Eye.”

Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc., has recently given permission to the Institute of General Semantics to distribute PDF scans of the entire back catalog of its journal Communication. All fifteen issues are now available for free download from the IGS Store.

• Click here to download Communication from the IGS Store.

Published from 1974 to 1983, editor Lee Thayer -- recipient of the 2017 J. Talbot Winchell Award for exceptional service to the field of general semantics -- described the biannual periodical as:

[…] devoted to new conceptual, theoretical and philosophical approaches to the role and consequences of communication in human affairs. The relevance, timeliness and topicality of this publication make it invaluable if you are interested in studying man through communication or concerned with communication generally from a professional or academic point of view. Each issue will be devoted to a specific topic.

The original editorial board for Communication featured an impressive lineup of individuals, many of whom influenced the field of general semantics. The editorial board as described in the first issue included the following individuals, helmed under the editorship of Lee Thayer:

John G. Bennett, England
Herbert Blumer, U.S.A.
Daniel J. Boorstin, U.S.A.
Kenneth E. Boulding, U.S.A.
Kenneth Burke, U.S.A.
S. N. Eisenstadt, Israel
Georges Friedmann, France
George Gerbner, U.S.A.
Gyorgy Kepes, U.S.A.
Harold D. Lasswell, U.S.A.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, France
Marshall McLuhan, Canada
Floyd W. Matson, U.S.A.
Igor Mel'čuk, U.S.S.R.
F. S. C. Northrop, U.S.A.
Walter J. Ong, U.S.A.
lthiel de Sola Pool, U.S.A.
Karl H. Pribram, U.S.A.
Anatol Rapoport, Canada
David Riesman, U.S.A.
Jurgen Ruesch, U.S.A.
Wilbur Schramm, U.S.A.
Thomas A. Sebeok, U.S.A.
Harley C. Shands, U.S.A.
Geoffrey Vickers, England

• Click here to download Communication from the IGS Store.

To the IGS YouTube account, we are currently adding videos of presentations from the 65th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and its subsequent 2-Day General Semantics Symposium, sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics, and co-sponsored by the Media Ecology Association and the New York Society for General Semantics.

The entire event was held at the Princeton Club in New York City, October 27-29, 2017.

The videos are compiled into a sequential playlist that mirrors the sequence of events from the weekend.

As of publication, not all videos are available as we await consent from the presenters. As presenters consent, we will release more videos in the playlist.

Watch individual entries from the playlist »

After a long wait, issue 73:1 (January 2016) of ETC: A Review of General Semantics is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 73:1 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• From the Vault:
  "Interview with Allen Flagg" by Martin H. Levinson
• "Spirituality at the Speed of Light" by Lance Strate
• From the Vault:
  "The Future of Consciousness" by Lance Strate
• "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland: Revisiting S. I. Hayakawa's 'Popular Songs vs. the Facts of Life" by Robert Albrecht
• "Why Journalists Lie: The Troublesome Times for Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Brian Williams" by Jefferson Spurlock
• "Fairy Tale: Swansong for Trump" by Marleen S. Barr
• "Groping 'Pussy Galore': Transporting Trump from Reality TV to Unreal Genre Fiction--Dystopia, Fairy Tale, and Science Fiction" by Marleen S. Barr
• "Live from New Yawk: Donald Trump Sounds like The Real Housewives of New York City Cast" by Marleen S. Barr
• "Of Hopis and Heptapods: The Return of Sapir-Whorf" by John Engle
• "The Star Image and National Identity of Sessue Hayakawa and Marlene Dietrich" by James Eric (Jay) Black
• "Photonics, Globalism, and Tribalism" by Eugene Marlow
• "The Language of the Gods: An Analysis of the Possibility of Conceptual Schemes" by John Engle
• "Reconstructing (What Barely Passes for) English Grammar: Looking Well Beyond E-Prime" by Stan Kozikowski
• Poems:
  "Condo" by Jane Blanchard
  "A Priori" by Jane Blanchard
  "As If to Shine" by Danny P. Barbare
  "Us Janitors" by Danny P. Barbare
• Plus Letter from the Editor and News and Notes.

Cover Art

The photograph used for the cover of ETC 73:1 is by Rick Wise.  Wise labels his images “Photographic Fiction.” Currently he is working on two
different series, Things, everyday objects we pass by without seeing, and Time-Flows, in which time is simultaneously expanded and contracted. He considers all of his work “Dancing with the Eye.”

The Institute of General Semantics is pleased to announce its latest book in the New Non-Aristotelian book series.

The book, How to Avoid Making a Fool of Yourself: An Introduction to General Semantics by R. Wayne Pace, provides a classic refresher of basic principle of GS brought into today's world.

The book presents itself an ideal workbook for classroom use, and it serves an an excellent updated introduction to the insights and applications of general semantics.

• Click here to purchase How to Avoid Making a Fool of Yourself from the IGS Store.